World War Two in the Pacific was a huge-scale activity. In terms of tonnage, fleets and supplies it was unprecedented. But for every crew-member and every ship that was lost there were distraught families. And that is always true when men go to sea.
A storm in the Mediterranean will have its dangers. Today and two thousand years ago ships have foundered and families have been made distraught. We have a record of one such incident in ‘Acts’. It concerned an Alexandrian vessel bound for Italy that could take passengers. One of the passengers was Paul. Another was the centurion in charge of him with responsibility for getting him to Rome and to trial. The ship ran into a storm. The crew could see the way things were and they attempted to get away from what they saw to be a doomed vessel. They faltered. In the confusion Paul – no sailor but a man of duty – did what the occasion demanded. He spoke clearly and confidently. The ship, he said, might be lost but there would be no loss of life. An angel of the God he worshipped had stood by him. And so it proved to be. The centurion, his prisoner and the 274 other people on board survived the break-up of the ship. They found themselves safe, in Malta.
As it happened, Paul’s time spent in Malta (three months) was not wasted. The governor of the island and the people proved to be hospitable and responsive to Paul’s beliefs. The same was true once Paul reached Rome, where Paul was greatly encouraged by the Christian believers when he received their welcome. Paul spent two years in Rome welcoming visitors and talking freely about the Christian faith.
Paul showed his mettle in this episode. He was a man who spent his life securing and propagating the Christian faith. He was also a man who could take decisions and get the best out of others. Here was a faith for the world, for sailors, land-workers, for high and low, for those who faltered and those who relied upon them. Christianity had undergone one of its most violent trials.
THE ‘OHIO’
In 1942 Malta was a torrid staging-post under attack from German units supplying Rommel’s Africa corps. The ‘Ohio’ was a vital ship in a convoy taking supplies to the islanders and the garrison. It narrowly survived an onslaught but managed to reach its destination and unload its cargo. It was so badly damaged it had to be scuttled.
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